September 30th, 2016 | Slippery little sucker

Alexander doing an inspection of the laundry liquid.My 9 year old scooter seat looks brand new after a new skin.Hmm, the centre is completely smooth. That explains the small slip sensation I sometimes get on the road.

8:00 a.m. Chia returned to work this morning after four days off due to the typhoon. I’m keeping Alexander at home today even though his eye has recovered. I would like to have at least a few days with him without having to deal with some kind of sickness.

He can go back to daycare next week.

9:45 a.m. Took my scooter to the scooter repair shop to have a new seat skin put on plus I need to replace a passenger pop-out foot peg which had been damaged ages ago. Piece by piece the scooter is being replaced with new parts. In the end I will almost have a brand new scooter I guess. But it’s better to keep it maintained and in good condition rather than watching it deteriorate into a bad troublesome condition (which many people seem to do) and then trying to buy a brand new one which is extremely expensive now. A new scooter like mine would cost around $70,000 NT. That’s equal to about 4 months salary. I’ve got nine good years out of this scooter. I can’t see why I can’t get another nine more as long as parts remain available and cheap if course.

10:15 a.m. I went to make Alexander a bottle feed of milk but when I returned to the room the door was locked. This week he had learned how to lock the door from the inside. Luckily though yesterday we decided to hang a key for the door outside the room just in case we got locked out. Lucky we did or there would have been a whole lot of trouble today.

11:30 a.m. Alex fell asleep in his stroller while I was shopping at Carrefour. That was good to shop without having to worry about a needy child.

12 p.m. My mandarin chinese must be getting rusty. I dropped into the Family Mart convenience store on the way home. I wanted a soft serve ice cream and that’s what I thought I ordered. I was given an iced Americana black coffee instead. What, the hell. I didn’t say anything to them. Maybe she miss heard me. Could my chinese be that terrible? I have got to brush up just incase.

1:00 p.m. Walked back to the scooter repair shop with Alex and picked up my old faithful. Wow, he did a good job. The new seat looks great. And very comfortable. I need comfort for those long rides to work. Very pleased. He also installed a new pop out passenger foot rest. Total was $800 NT (includes labor). Worth it.

3:00 p.m. Bundled some bedding under Alexander’s large pram and went to the laundromat. It’s time for the weekly wash.

6:00 p.m. It has started raining again. Have just finished giving Alexander a bath and his dinner.

8:30 p.m. Picked up a takeaway from the $100 steak house for Chia. While I was waiting I noticed my back tire is quite worn. That would explain the slip feeling I sometimes experience on the road. I thought it might have been the road surface, but I’d say it’s the worn tire. I will have to change it tomorrow. Too dangerous to ride with worn tires, especially the distance I travel. Better to be safe than sorry.